Barry Goldwater and the 1964 Religious Issue

Abstract

Every four years the American people brace themselves for the unique national phenomenon of a presidential election cam paign. Starting in January of the new year when the candidates usually declare themselves, the campaign increases its momentum with important primaries, national conventions, and the final weeks of electioneering. By the first Tuesday following the first Monday in November such a crescendo of political fever and fervor has permeated the nation that it is frequently difficult for the electorate to separate fact from fiction and accurate evaluation from distorted hyperbola. However, it is easier to separate the relevant from the irrelevant when one is aided by the vantage point of history (even recent history). Oftentimes, issues assume another dimension when carefully examined under this important microscope. During the 1960 presidential campaign, there was a great deal of publicity given to the After the Democratic party nominated John Fitzgerald Kennedy for the country's highest office, newspapers, popular magazines, serious journals of opinion, as well as radio and television commentators, con stantly emphasized the fact that Mr. Kennedy was the first Roman Catholic since Al Smith to aspire to the presidency. The question posed was: Can a President adhering to the Roman Catholic faith remain true to the constitutional principle of separation of church and state? Another issue emerging from this campaign was purely political in nature and focused on the prob lem of whether a Catholic presidential candidate would gain or lose votes in his endeavor to reach the White House. The question was made more newsworthy by popular feeling as well as some historical interpretation which led the common man to believe that Al Smith's defeat in 1928 was primarily due to the religious issue. Richard Hofstadter, writing in The Reporter at the start of the 1960 campaign, attempted to put Al Smith's defeat in proper perspective by pointing to his other political handicaps, such as Smith's opposition to prohibition and his Tammany, New York